IMMANUEL "GOD WITH US"

"TO LOVE AND TO SERVE"

There is no one in history that has been given more names or titles than Jesus Christ. If you've read through the Bible carefully then you know what I mean. Throughout the pages of Holy Writ over 100 names and titles are given to Jesus. And whether He is called "Bright morning star, Wonderful Counselor, All that, the Reason, the Root of Jesse, the Alpha and the Omega, or the Lamb of God", each of these names and titles is rich with meaning. They all say something significant about who Jesus is.However, there is no name more significant than "Immanuel".

This name, which Matthew refers to in his Gospel (Matthew 1:23), was first given to Jesus by the prophet Isaiah 700 years before His birth (Isaiah 7:14). And this very special Christmas name, as Matthew tells us, it means "God with us." Jesus Christ is Immanuel, "God with us," and I'd like to share why this is so meaningful at Christmas time.The babe born to Mary in a manger, the infant that the shepherds ran to see, the newborn child that the Magi traveled hundreds of miles to worship is Immanuel, God with us. But in what sense is Jesus "God with us?" Wasn't God always with the human race? Wasn't "God with us" before Jesus? Yes.

In one sense God, the Creator, has always been "with" His creation. Unlike the false god of the Deists and Theists and of many evolutionists, who believe in a god who started the world and then departed far away, the true God has always been with us. About this He says in Jeremiah 23 "`Am I God who is near,' declares the LORD, `And not far off? Can a man hide himself in hiding places, so I do not see him?' declares the LORD. `Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?' declares the LORD." (Jer. 23:23-24). The God of the Bible, the true Creator is omnipresent, everywhere at the same time. He fills all of creation with His presence; every mountain and every molecule; and yet He is not a part of that creation. He remains Creator distinct from His creation. And so a God who is everywhere is certainly a God who is with us.

When Paul preached to the pagans of Lystra (in Acts 14) He reminded them that the true God, the Creator, had always been with them, giving them witness of Himself by providing them with rains, fruitful seasons, and giving them food and glad hearts. Thus, God has always been with His creation in the sense that He, who is everywhere, has showered all mankind with blessings -- despite their sin.

But with the birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem, Immanuel, "God With Us," takes on a whole new meaning. For in the person of baby Jesus, God is "with us" not merely to bless us. Nor is He with us in the sense that He is going to merely work through Jesus to help us, protect us, and guide us. No-the little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay is "God with us" because He is God. Years later St. John the Evangelist under the inspiration of the Spirit would write the perfect commentary on the Christmas events. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; and all things were made through Him and apart from Him nothing was made which was made...And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:1-3, 14).

The true message of Christmas is one to stagger the imagination: The Second Person of the Trinity, the only begotten Son of the Father, the eternal Word, our Creator wills to clothe Himself in our nature, and to become man, our brother, one of us. God Himself lies in the manger, completely human, completely Divine.Why does mankind need "God with us?" First, because He is not. Listen to what our Creator says in Isaiah 59: "Behold, the LORD's hand is not so short that it cannot save; Neither is His ear so dull that it cannot hear.

But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He does not hear." These words were spoken originally to the covenant people of Israel, but they apply to all who have sinned against the Creator. Why does the human race need "God with Us?" Because the plain truth is that without "God with us" we human beings are incomplete at best. For no matter what we in our arrogance like to imagine about ourselves, we humans are creatures. We did not will ourselves into existence by our invincible spirit. Nor do we owe our existence now to our superior intellect and will to survive. These explanations are quite flattering and are also quite without any evidence of truth. We human beings are creations: beautiful, complicated, and intricate creations fashioned by an all-powerful Creator who has revealed Himself to us as our God. His name is Yahweh. And He has revealed Himself to us as Three Divine Persons in One Divine Essence: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

We human beings were created by this loving Creator in the image of God (Gen. 1:27). This means that we were created for the express purpose of knowing and loving Him. We were meant to have the most intimate relationship imaginable with Him. We were to depend on Him for all things; we were to daily walk in His light, His love, His joy, His power. But all this man chose to throw away, and did throw away, when He rebelled against the Creator by sinning against Him. And the last six thousand years of man's history has witnessed the restless creature man trying to find meaning in life apart from the Creator. St. Augustine's familiar words hit the mark, "For You have formed us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until we find rest in You." The human race needs God, the Creator, because it is built into the very core of our nature to know Him intimately. Without Him, we are incomplete, empty, unfulfilled, restless, all because we are living life contrary to the purpose for which we were made. When the creature no longer has fellowship with the Creator, he seeks to find a replacement to make the gnawing emptiness go away. Some call this "man's drive to succeed", others "finding myself", and still others refer to it as "self-actualization."

But these restless strivings are the creature trying to fill the void left by the Absence of the Creator. Some try to make the emptiness go away with romance and relationships, family and friends; Others throw themselves completely into a career hoping that will give their life meaning. Others find themselves almost obsessively buying one thing after the other, desperately hoping to find fulfillment under the sheer weight of the new.

Sadly, many turn to the dark side of drugs, alcohol, crime, and other deviant behaviors to drown out the emptiness and lack of meaning in their lives. We need "God with us" because without Him we are incomplete.This Christmas let us invite Jesus Christ in our lives because He is knocking on the doors of our hearts and waiting for us to let him in, He will not only be God with us but God in us.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR WITH LOVE!

DON'T GIVE-UP

"TO LOVE AND TO SERVE"

Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you.

we ought to Wholly depend on him (God), show him that without him we cannot go on, because its not by strength or power but by his Spirit and since he is so gentle, he will never force us to do what we don not choose.Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind. Slowly by renewing, submitting our lives and minds to the word of God we attaiin the mind of Christ our Lord and Savior.

Shalom!